{"id":2799,"date":"2012-01-13T20:48:28","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T20:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/?p=2799"},"modified":"2019-09-05T16:49:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T20:49:02","slug":"books-of-the-month-last-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/2012\/01\/books-of-the-month-last-harvest\/","title":{"rendered":"Book(s) of the Month: Last Harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">To keep up with emerging ideas, highlight especially important works, and provide diverse views on issues in planning and design, I will be highlighting some of my past and current readings over the next year.<br \/>\nTo begin, I\u2019d like to feature a pair of books from one of the best authors in architecture and urban studies: <a title=\"rybczynski official home page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.witoldrybczynski.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Witold Rybczynski<\/a>. Two of his books contrast the extremes of development: Last Harvest (2007) and City Life (1995). (For now, I will forgo his wonderful biography of Frederick Law Olmsted, A Clearing in the Distance, and his latest, Makeshift Metropolis.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2802\" style=\"width: 212px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Last-Harvest.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2802\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2802\" title=\"Last Harvest\" src=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Last-Harvest-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Last-Harvest-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Last-Harvest.jpg 337w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2802\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last Harvest<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The subtitle of Last Harvest is a summary of its theme: \u201cHow a Cornfield Became New Daleville: Real Estate Development in America from George Washington to the Builders of the Twenty-first Century, and Why We Live in Houses Anyway\u201d. It covers a lot of ground in 300 pages, but, it\u2019s a fast, pleasant, informative read. My only real gripe is the lack of illustrations and maps.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2803\" style=\"width: 624px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/LondnderryTp.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2803\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2803 \" title=\"LondonderryTownship\" src=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/LondnderryTp-1024x769.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"614\" height=\"461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/LondnderryTp-1024x769.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/LondnderryTp-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2803\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Londonderry Township, from Breou&#8217;s Official Series of Farm Maps, Chester County, 1883<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The narrative of Last Harvest is not linear \u2013 it weaves history into a story about the development of New Daleville in <a title=\"londonderry township home page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.londonderrytownship.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Londonderry Township<\/a> in Chester County, PA. While focusing on creating a \u201cnew urbanist\u201d suburb from a cornfield and the various decisions and perspectives of the developer, the municipal representative, citizens, and designers, Rybczynski provides an overview of several precedents and important general factors of such development. These include a brief history of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"seaside florida home page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.seasidefl.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seaside<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li>Unwin\u2019s seminal work, <a title=\"town planning in practice on open library\" href=\"http:\/\/openlibrary.org\/books\/OL6622384M\/Town_planning_in_practice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Town Planning in Practice<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li>Zoning history;<\/li>\n<li>Real estate transactions by the first settlers;<\/li>\n<li>Kentlands (here in Montgomery County);<\/li>\n<li>Sprawl and suburbanization, which Rybczynski describes under the heading of \u201cscatteration\u201d;<\/li>\n<li>Housing patterns and typologies; and<\/li>\n<li>Consumer preferences and lifestyles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The bulk of the book, believe it or not, focuses on the minutiae of the meetings, proposals, redesigns, meetings, pricing and marketing concerns, compromises, and more meetings required to obtain the support and, ultimately, the approvals to create New Daleville. It\u2019s a fascinating \u2013 really, I promise \u2013 description that will sound familiar to those who are active in zoning and planning discussions in Montgomery County, but it provides a view into many aspects of the process that aren\u2019t typically seen. This is an important contribution to the understanding of the whole picture of land development, zoning decisions, and planning that should allow us all to come to the table with a wider perspective.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2804\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/new-daleville-plan.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2804\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2804 \" title=\"new daleville plan\" src=\"http:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/new-daleville-plan.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"303\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/new-daleville-plan.jpg 600w, https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/new-daleville-plan-300x189.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2804\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New Daleville Illustrative Plan<\/p><\/div>\n<p>New Daleville was ultimately built out by Ryan Homes with homes ranging from the low to high $200,000s. Alas, if you really like this style of home (and lifestyle), it is sold out \u2013 models such as the Savoy, the Melville, and the Austin (most named after authors \u2026 not sure where the Savoy came from) apparently lived up to the developer\u2019s description, \u201cReminiscent of old-time neighborhoods, this lovely neo-traditional community has a central boulevard lined with picket fences leading you into tree-lined streets and alley ways. The lush landscape is laced with bench-lined paths and winding walkways to pocket parks and recreation areas where neighbors and friends can gather and have fun.\u201d Of course, there is not a store or office within walking distance\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>A complete contrast to this history is provided in City Life. Here, Rybczynski sets out to analyze why our cities developed into the form(s) they did. Specifically, why aren\u2019t our cities like European cities?<\/p>\n<p>More, next post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">To keep up with emerging ideas, highlight especially important works, and provide diverse views on issues in planning and design, I will be highlighting some of my past and current readings over the next year. To begin, I\u2019d like to feature a pair of books from one of the best authors in architecture and urban studies: Witold Rybczynski. Two of his books contrast the extremes of development: Last Harvest (2007) and City Life (1995). (For now, I will forgo his wonderful biography of Frederick Law Olmsted, A Clearing in the Distance, and his latest, Makeshift Metropolis.)<\/p>\n<p>The subtitle of Last Harvest is a summary of its theme: \u201cHow a Cornfield Became New Daleville: Real Estate Development in America from &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/2012\/01\/books-of-the-month-last-harvest\/\" class=\"read-more\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[299,5,63],"tags":[354,356,357,358,137,244,353,355],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-places","category-planning","category-zoning","tag-books","tag-last-harvest","tag-new-daleville","tag-new-urbanism","tag-redevelopment","tag-rural","tag-suburban","tag-witold-rybczynski"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6263,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions\/6263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}